SEBI should have greater accountability, especially in dealing with cases related to ponzi schemes and giving money back to small investors who are duped

A member in the Lok Sabha from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday pitched for greater accountability of regulators like the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in dealing with cases related to ponzi schemes and said small investors who are duped should get back their money.

Resuming the discussion on Securities Laws (Amendment) Bill, Kirit Somaiya wanted to know as to how many people have been punished for running such schemes.

The BJP member cautioned that ponzi companies will find new ways to bypass the new law. He said multi-state credit cooperative societies are now being floated to "loot" investors.

He said while there is provision of investor protection education fund, not much has been utilised over the years.

Somaiya claimed that several such companies invite MPs and MLAs to their programmes and use their name to lure potential investors.

He said over Rs1 lakh crore is "trapped" in such schemes.

Kalyan Banerjee (TMC) said the authorities vested with powers to protect the interests of investors are not serious in their job.

He claimed only a handful of people have received refund of their investments.

He said the law should not create "another CBI" which could be used to further the political interests of the ruling party.

Referring to the functioning of tribunals, he said much needs to be done and their judgements should be swift.

He also demanded appointing people with clean image to head regulators and tribunals.

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Nagesh Kini

2 years ago

SEBI has necessarily to be more stringent like the US SEC in meting out penalties and punishments and do away with consents and settlements. Rajat Gupta could be imprisoned in the USA how many have been sent to jail in India?

Just giving power is not medicine for all ills but firm action is necessarry and BJP MPs should keep watch on regulators.

The government offers subsidy for using solar power but, at the moment, the investment costs are high and these deter owners in residential areas from taking the risk

A workshop on "Energy Secure Outlook for India” organised by both the Planning Commission and the Centre for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP) was held recently. According to Rajnath Ram, joint adviser, Planning Commission, who attended this workshop, and met the

press on the sidelines, mentioned about the basic details of the plans to set up solar parks.

The proposal is to set up 25 solar parks, estimated to cost Rs4,000 crore, in a span of five years which may be able to produce 20,000 MW of solar power. At the present moment, only 1,760 MW is produced in the country in this manner.

Initially, these solar parks will be set up in Karnataka, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Jammu & Kashmir and will be spread over in a total area of 90,000 acres. The energy thus generated would be fed to a central power grid, according to Rajnath Ram. Full details of the number of such solar parks in each of the above mentioned states are expected to be announced soon.

The CSTEP study indicates that, if India were to attain the theoretical solar power capacity of 500,000 MW, accounting for 21% of the total electricity generated, no less than one million hectares of land would be needed. This is as per a recently launched web based tool - India Energy Security Scenario (IESS) developed by the Planning Commission with CSTEP and other organisations.

There is the lurking fear that if the current trends in the energy consumption and the corresponding emissions continue in a "business as usual" scenario, then India would have to import 60% of its energy by 2047, and will be emitting 8,705 tonnes of CO2 (carbon dioxide) by this time, according to IESS.

While we must appreciate the efforts of the MNRE (Ministry of New & Renewable Energy), we must also reiterate that the selected states must now actively take interest in organising exclusive industrial exhibitions in their states where in the benefits of installing solar power panels in individual homes should be explained in depth. Workshops and symposiums should be held where qualified contractors with proven track record in the state should be able to present offers to "electrify" individual homes with these solar panels that would take care of their household needs.

Home owners need to be presented a simple proposal, where the cost of such installation is met by bankers, who should be able to give competitive rates (low interest charges). These rates when compared with the actual costs of electricity bills paid by the owner are not very high. Effectively, the owners should be able to break even on their investments in a few years' time, so as to make the proposal viable. The government offers subsidy for using solar power but, at the moment, the investment costs are high and this deters the owner from taking the risk.

Hence, this issue needs to be tackled by the MNRE to make it within the reach of the house owners, and if the state governments want to make it popular, they should select some housing colonies (of small villas/houses etc) and make it a prototype solar power colony. Once successful, this could be extended to other areas in the selected city.

(AK Ramdas has worked with the Engineering Export Promotion Council of the ministry of commerce. He was also associated with various committees of the Council. His international career took him to places like Beirut, Kuwait and Dubai at a time when these were small trading outposts; and later to the US.)

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Richard Rodrigues

2 years ago

Kerala government and Tata company have already initiated to generate electicity by using solar panels on the top of terrace of many houses and pooling the current to supply others.Tatas giving warranty to the solar panels for 25 years.where as Government will give subsidy to install the solar panels.This type of model can be introduced in our country and save foreign exchange to import coal or gas.Morover earhs ozone layer can also protected by avoiding the emission of carbon gas.We can get carbon credit for this kind of plants

I have put solar lighting in my house about 10 years back itself. My house is independant in respect of lighting.

I have also put solar water heater.

But i did not get any financial assistence towads solar lighting. Any possibility for claiming now. Kind advice?

Nagesh Kini

2 years ago

Extremely well put!
Unfortunately both solar energy and rain water that are available in plenty are both going abegging only because of their high initial installation capital costs which pay back over a period of time.
If the authorities are really serious in harnessing both the costs need to be reduced to reasonable levels, there have to be dedicated suppliers making available quality stuff and not the cheap China-mades,the MNES should open this all across the country and not just to the four states arrange for bank loans directly payable to the vendors in a trilateral agreement between the consumer, bank and vendor with the MNES as faciltator.

Dr Anantha K Ramdas

2 years ago

Thanks for your responses. Our main problem is that serious efforts are not made to actually locate, test and certify those of the manufacturers who can supply, for example, solar water heaters. The cost of this, if produced on a mass scale, should surely come down.

Likewise, when we ape the west for so many other things, why not we learn from that in many western countries, it is the people who are taking the initiative to have solar panels installed in their homes to reduce dependence on fossil fuel. If big and innovative CSR minded organizations like Tatas, Wipro, HCL, Birlas, Infosys etc take economic production of these solar panels and the relative items needed to power homes, they should be able to deliver the goods.

Mr Aiyer's points are well taken in the sense that we, the people, are responsible in electing the wrong set of guys to govern us. I am also looking for a "reliable" contractor who can help me to harvest rain water. I have not found one who could be entrusted, because when I ask them to take me to any other place where they have done such contracts, that's the last I hear from them. So, I am back to square one.

This is why if the Ministry were to sponsor an exhibition where these companies can show what they can deliver there is a chance that things may improve, provided, such claims are verified by a totally independent and reliable organization.

Either we take the gamble or be at someone's mercy in taking a chance to give such contracts. I would welcome suggestions from readers who have got the solar panel and water harvesting done (and are satisfied with the result) so that we can go forward with such parties.

SuchindranathAiyerS

2 years ago

In India? In Karnataka, captive power generation is licensed and taxed as being in competition with Government's right to feed on its serfs. Rain water harvesting was another clever gimmick for making the citizen's pay for the problems created by the ruling scum in grabbing land and violating rules and norms established by the Maharaja's and British governments to preserve Nature's right and tradition of harvesting rain water for the benefit of humanity. Indian Governance is about creating scarcity where abundance lies to enrich and pamper the ruling scum. The problem in India is rooted in its grotesque Constitution that graft the satire from the George Orwell's "Animal Farm" such as "ALL animals are equal but some are more equal than others" and "Four legs good, two legs bad" on to the Government of India Act (1935) and the incompetent and corrupt laws, governance and Courts that derive from this to create a Neta-Babu-Milard-Copocracy that devotes itself, since 1947, to subverting the resource of the State and ordinary citizens to their personal pelf, pleasure, pomp and perpetuation. Fix this, and all else will fall in place!

Jayaram M

2 years ago

Interesting: my observations are -
- Currently; solar power is not cost effective except for water heating / emergency power in urban areas mostly because of the space requirement (conversion ratio).
- Inflation is keeping people away from capital investment / especially when your abode is rented.
- Quality / durability / maintenance - the ratio is perhaps 1:9 - for every reliable supplier !
- Most important: there should be a all encompassing strictly implemented policy for non fossil fuels ... please also pay a thought to how much of conventional energy is used to manufacture the solar cells in the first place ! - MJ -

Out of the 43 lakh claims settled by EPFO since April, more than 68% were settled in less than 10 days

The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has settled over 11 lakh claims, including transfer and withdrawal of provident fund, during July.

"EPFO has settled more than 11 lakh claims during July 2014. This has taken the cumulative total during this financial year to 43 lakh claims," the retirement fund body said a statement.

Of the 43 lakh claims, more than 68% were settled in less than 10 days.

Besides, the EPFO also updated 92% of the annual accounts due for the year 2013-14. "This achievement is unprecedented and has happened for the first time in the last 30 years," EPFO added.

EPFO has recently issued Universal PF Account Numbers for 4.17 crore contributing members. They have been made available to the employers who in turn have to seed the numbers with KYC details such as bank account, PAN and Aadhaar.

As per latest progress review, more than 30 lakh (KYC) data has been seeded so far. EPFO has set 15th September as deadline for completing this task. These 4.17 crore UANs are expected to be operational by 15th October.

The UAN will be portable throughout the working career of the members and can be used anywhere in India. Thus, they will not need to apply for transfer of PF account on changing jobs.

With a view to making inspections of establishments more transparent, objective and to bring in greater accountability on the part of inspecting staff, a new scheme has been introduced by EPFO.

The new system envisages both mandatory and optional inspection of establishments. While mandatory inspections would be applicable in respect of new coverages (companies), establishments registered on ECR portal but not complying and those establishments reported for closure.

The optional inspection would be resorted to in such cases where there is a drop in remittance or membership. It is also been decided shall be uploaded on the EPFO's website and thereby placing the same in the public domain for scrutiny.

It was also stated that social security agreements have been notified with respect to two more countries -- Finland and Sweden. The agreements are operationalised from 1st August.

Under the agreement, employees who are deputed for short term assignments are exempted from making social security contributions in the country in which they are deputed provided they carry Certificate of Coverage (CoC).

Facilities also exist for totalisation and portability of social security benefits.

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IndianMoney

2 years ago

The EPFO is one of the biggest saving schemes in India and it offers an interest rate of 8.75% per annum.
A meeting is scheduled for August 26th 2014 and one hopes that a hike in interest rates is on.

Mr Jitendra

2 years ago

In India, no one talks about EPFO and its controversial decisions like EPS Pension scheme and the decision not to credit interest to dormant PF accounts. In 2013-14 the Inoperative PF Balance was Rs 26 thousand crores and interest on that amount comes to around Rs 2252 crores which they did not credit. Is Rs 2252 crores not a savings for EPFO? And that Savings can be called as Indirect Income? What is EPFO doing with the Rs 2252 crores that they saved by not giving interest on Inoperative Balance? EPFO chose not to reply to this grievance raised on grievance portal.

jossie

2 years ago

My PD due took me almost three year to get the amount.

Secondly the amount stated by them and on calculation the same is actually different. This thus shows there is no transparency in their interest calculation.(If the interest rate reduced in a Financial Year then the PF interest amount get reduced as I found out since I had to wait for almost three year to get my dues)

No one co-operate since they say that everything is centrallised in Delhi